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While Israel has never acknowledged its nuclear weapons program, experts say it’s the Middle East’s worst kept secret. “Israel is unique among nuclear-armed states as it neither confirms nor denies its nuclear capability,” according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Israel is one of nine countries known to have nuclear weapons, including the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Israel has not signed the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and opposes diplomatic efforts to establish a WMD Free Zone in the Middle East. It has signed and ratified the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which obligates signatories not to explode a nuclear device in the atmosphere or oceans.

How long has Israel had nuclear weapons? Israel began exploring nuclear weapons development before its establishment in 1948, then at a secret development site in 1958, near the southern town of Dimona.

It is widely thought that Israel first assembled its first nuclear weapon around 1966 or 1967. In 1968, the CIA said Israel had successfully started production of nuclear weapons.

Israel is believed to have conducted a clandestine atmospheric nuclear test in 1979, which it denies.

How big is its arsenal? Israel now has around 90 nuclear warheads and is believed to have enough nuclear material to produce up to 300 nuclear weapons, according to Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US-based NGO.

It is continuing to modernize its stockpile, according to SIPRI, who said that Israel conducted a test of a missile propulsion system in 2024 that could be related to its Jericho family of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

Israel also appears to be upgrading its plutonium production reactor site at Dimona, SIPRI said.